A tournament to remember
My last blog was after the FLW Tour Smith Lake tournament and I am now enjoying some much needed time off. I have fished five tournaments back to back, starting with the Beaver Lake tour event. From there I went to the Red River to fish a BASS Open. Then I fished back-to-back EverStart events on Pickwick and Wheeler and then finally the FLW Tour at Lake Eufaula.
I have had a lot of ups and downs throughout this series of tournaments and I could write a book if I were to go through each one. The one that I would like to talk about is the last one at Lake Eufaula. I have fished hundreds of tournaments in my day but I cannot remember anything coming close to what happened at the Eufaula event.
Lake Eufaula will always be a special place for me because I had my first big win there in 2008. I am always confident I can come up with a winning formula there. The lake sets up for me really well with all of the shallow grass. I have caught them there from the dam to far up the river so I was ready when the first day of practice arrived.
This year, the water was clear compared to years past and there was far more shallow grass than I have ever seen. Lots of patterns were producing but overall I really felt the bite was tough compared to years past.The fish were far more spread out and there were some in all phases of the spawn.The best thing I found during the three days of practice was some good fish on a shad-spawn bite. Unfortunately that was over by our blast-off time. I was fishing my strengths and I was getting quality bites although I was not getting a lot of bites. I knew if I could get 8 to 10 bites a day I should have a chance on the final day but fishing was still a grind.
The first day of the tournament arrived and I caught a solid keeper on my third cast swimming a jig. Two hours later I was still sitting on that one fish and was making my milk run down the lake. Keeper number two came on a prop bait on a bream bed about 9:00 a.m. and then at 9:30 I hit a good stretch of grass and caught three good ones in about 10 casts on the jig again. At 10 o’clock I had around 14 pounds and I am feeling pretty good about my day at this point. One good bite now and I can become a player in this derby on day one!
I was running and gunning, fishing spots for a few casts and moving to the next – focusing on bream beds and grass beds with docks mixed in. About my second move after catching my limit I knew I had trouble. My boat was suddenly slow to get on plane. Then it became hard to get in and out of gear. I have been there before. I don’t panic or get excited. I think about my options and the best way to weigh-in a good sack of fish and at this point I am still fishing and the boat is still running. My first call was to our tournament director, Bill Taylor, and then the service crew. They told me what I already knew. My boat would not make it until my 4:45 weigh in time. I made the decision to try and limp in, get it repaired, and hopefully get back out and catch a big one.
This is the plan and I was about 10 minutes into my journey back to the takeoff when she let go. The lower end of Lake Eufaula is rather large if you have never seen it. I am not sure you could have placed a boat further from the bank if you tried. I was dead in the middle, miles from the bank and even farther from a boat ramp and approximately 25 miles from takeoff. After several lengthy phone calls with Bill and lots of discussion about where I actually was, he got someone to come out and tow me in.
I am now trolling toward the bank with the trolling motor and trying to arrange to get the boat repaired at a boat ramp on the lower end of the lake and all of this eventually happens. I cannot thank everyone enough that helped me out. You should have seen my 21-foot bass boat sitting on the fenders of a trailer made for a narrow 18 foot boat getting repaired in a parking lot! I wish I could tell you I went out and caught an 8-pounder now, but that is not what happened. I culled one time that afternoon and my co-angler, who only had one fish during all of this, ended up catching three more. I was sitting in 23rd place and was pleased that the day was behind me and I was going to go out and bust a big bag on day two.
The first sign of trouble on day two actually happened at about 8:00 p.m. on day one. Sara had prepared a nice dinner and I didn’t feel like eating it. Now some people might not think that is a big deal but let me tell you I am always hungry and on a tournament night I usually do a pretty good job on my wife’s cooking. I didn’t eat much and was in bed early. At 9:30 it started, there was a pain in my stomach that I hope I never experience again. I had no idea a human body could retain that much stuff. What didn’t come out one end came out of the other. It was not pretty and when my alarm went off at 4:45 a.m. I had not been to back to bed and the tournament was the last thing on my mind. I am now concerned that I might die.
Day two of the Eufaula event will go down as the longest, most miserable tournament day of my career to this day. It was hot and muggy and I couldn’t drink enough water. My entire body hurt and I felt at any minute that it might be my last. I think I caught nine keepers that day. I don’t remember how or where or anything. I weighed-in a little more than 14 pounds and my day ended with Sara taking me to the ER.
While getting fluids put back into me in the ER, Sara informs me that I am in 12th place. I am happy about it but there is no way I am going fishing again feeling like I did. After the second bag of fluids and some medication plus a few hours of laying in that cold hospital room, I started to think that there might be hope. I don’t know what was in those bags but let me tell you, I want some more. By the morning of the third day I felt like a new man.
Now a perfect ending to this whole story would be that I went out and caught a couple of giant bags and won the tournament. That would have been awesome, overcoming all of the adversity and such. If I was a writer and this was fiction that is how I would end it. It was Randy Haynes that won, not Randy Tharp. He was the best last week and he deserved the win.
I fished well on the third day but weighed-in my smallest stringer and ended the day where I started in 12th. I can promise you one thing; I will never forget the 2013 FLW Tour event at Lake Eufaula. There are two events left now with Grand being next. Are you ready?